Poet Charles Churchill became a close ally of politician John Wilkes in the early 1760s, and assisted him with the North Briton newspaper. In addition to Poems (see above), these poems were all published this year:[3]
The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral, the first of several Churchill poems that stirred controversy this year, was a violent satire on Scottish influence and fell in with the current hatred of Lord Bute. The Scottish place-hunters were as much alarmed as the actors had been in 1761, when Churchill terrorised them with his Rosciad.
An Epistle to William Hogarth[1] was in answer to the caricature of Wilkes made during the trial. In the poem, Churchill attacked Hogarth's vanity and envy with an invective which David Garrick quoted as shocking and barbarous. Hogarth retaliated with a caricature of Churchill as a bear in torn clerical bands hugging a pot of porter and a club made of lies and North Britons.
The Duellist is a virulent satire on the most active opponents of Wilkes in the House of Lords, especially Bishop Warburton.
The Ghost, was an attack on Samuel Johnson among others, calling Johnson, "Pomposo, insolent and loud, Vain idol of a scribbling crowd."
